Emergency prep focus of weekend expo (Dayton Ohio)

TROTWOOD — Could you and your family survive a disaster lasting more than three days?

That’s a question at the heart of the first Prepared & Spared: Off the Grid Expo taking place this weekend at Hara Arena, 1001 Shiloh Springs Road.

The event — which requires paid admission — will take place Saturday and Sunday and targets preppers, those interested in issues related to off-grid emergency living, according to Angil Corey, co-owner and president of Worst Case Scenario Productions in Kettering.

Corey is hosting the event along with Michele Reed, Worst Case co-owner and treasurer. Their company promotes preparedness, emergency management and self-sustainability.

“We just want people prepared, and then they are spared the hardships,” Corey said. “ There is a need and a want here. There just has not been a resource.”

Guests and speakers include James “Doctor Prepper” Talmage Stevens, author of the 1974 book Making the Best of Basics: The Family Preparedness Handbook; Dr. Joe and Amy Alton, owners of the Doom and Bloom (TM) | Survival Medicine and Preparedness by Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy survival medicine website and podcast; and Jim Jones, founder of Live Free USA, who will talk about networking with people with different talents who can come together to build a sustainable preparedness organization.

Corey added that Stevens, a Texas resident, wrote what she said was the original preparedness book that talks about subjects that include how to can foods, how to purify contaminated water and how to heat your home without electricity.

The Altons, Florida residents, will provide a wound care and suture session Sunday.

“If you find yourself in a situation where you can’t get medical care right away and you have a severe wound that needs to be cleaned and taken care of, what this class will do will actually teach you how to care for that wound,” Corey said. “ The class is taught by using pigs feet.”

The expo will also feature Bryan May and Lucas Cameron, who were a part of the season two cast for the National Geographic show Doomsday Preppers. “Both of them are really big into off-grid power. They are bringing their own power units that they have made, and they are going to talk about prep on a shoestring budget.”

Corey put her preparedness skills in action when the effects of Hurricane Ike blew through the Miami Valley in 2008.

“We were lucky enough to have just returned home from camping, and the power was out for 10 days,” Corey said. Her camping supplies — which included an ice chest, non-electric coffee maker and bottled propane gas — helped her and her family through that rough period. “We were able to get through it without suffering some of the hardships that our neighbors did.”

Corey describes herself as a prepper and said expo attendees will learn the various types of preppers, which includes those who are prepared to live without electricity for a couple of days to those who can live completely off the grid.

A person living off the grid is living completely independent from the system, preparing for what they believe is a natural or economic or socio-political disaster, according to Corey.

“When you say prepper, people always envision the extreme,” she said, adding that more people want to be ready for one or two weeks of emergencies.

Corey said the focus of the expo is to provide resources on how to prepare for the worst.

“What’s an emergency to one person is not necessarily an emergency to another,” Corey said. “Being prepared can get you through to that next sunny day.”

Prepared & Spared: Off the Grid Expo

What: This is an event hosted by Worst Case Scenario Productions in Kettering that will focus on surviving during short-term and longterm emergency situations.

When: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat., May 31 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sun., June 1.

Who can attend: All ages

Cost: $12 per person, per day. Weekend tickets are $18. No cost for children 12 and under. There is a $75 fee to attend wound care and suture session at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.